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Why U.S. Manufacturing Reshoring Won’t Happen Overnight

If you followed manufacturing headlines in 2014, you may have noticed that reshoring, a term referring to U.S. companies returning to domestic production, gained a lot of attention.

However, the reported prevalence of the reshoring trend may not reflect the reality, or amount to quite the economic asset that many were projecting.

But does that mean that little has changed when it comes to returning productivity to the U.S.? Why haven’t renewed domestic manufacturing advantages yielded a greater response from outsourcing companies? Is there any remaining hope for the U.S. manufacturing reshoring movement?

“No one claims — at least we don’t claim — that you’re going to see a million new jobs from reshoring next year. That would be totally irrational, irresponsible. And we don’t have the workers, the skilled workers, to do it. It’s taken 60 years for [offshoring] to happen, and it’s going to take decades for it to reverse. For our trade deficit to be eliminated, for reshoring and foreign direct investment to bring many of those jobs back.”